Adobe announced it will acquire AI brand visibility platform Semrush for a value of $1.9 billion.
Semrush provides AI-powered brand visibility generative engine optimisation (GEO) and search engine optimisation (SEO) solutions.
In its recent quarter, Semrush drove 33 percent year-over-year annual revenue.
The new integration, Adobe said in a statement, will give Adobe users “a holistic understanding of how their brands appear across owned channels, LLMs, traditional search and the wider web.”
“Brand visibility is being reshaped by generative AI, and brands that don’t embrace this new opportunity risk losing relevance and revenue,” said Anil Chakravarthy, president of Adobe’s Digital Experience Business.
“With Semrush, we’re unlocking GEO for marketers as a new growth channel alongside their SEO, driving more visibility, customer engagement and conversions across the ecosystem.”
AI Visibility for Brands
As consumers increasingly turn to AI tools for their information over traditional media outlets, brands are investing more in generative engine optimisation (GEO) – the act of optimising a brand to appear more commonly in AI search tools.
Data from Adobe in October found that GenAI tools were driving a 1200 percent increase in traffic to US retail websites year-on-year.
The Adobe-Semrush acquisition signals a clear shift in marketing strategy as companies recognize AI-driven search as essential to customer acquisition. The deal reflects growing industry consensus that traditional SEO alone no longer suffices in reaching modern consumers.
As GenAI reshapes information discovery, brands must adapt their visibility strategies or risk becoming invisible to increasingly AI-reliant audiences seeking recommendations and solutions.
